[Indeed, something did seem to be inspiring a sort of abject defensiveness in particular toward their own... intimacy. Further elaboration may be necessary, but he was not entirely sure that these ideas would translate or be lost in the translation.]

We are brothers. Not of blood, but of bond and strife, experience, and...

[he shrugged, smiling just a little at Iofast, a tilt of his lips upward. Something bade him not to worry about confessing such things. For if it was understood theirs be a relationship of marriage, perhaps such things were more readily permitted in these realms. They could always claim they spoke in this way for ease of understanding, if questioned.]

Iofast is my constant. The realm may change and yet my bond with him shall never.